#2

NASA has big plans for returning to the Moon. Whether it can be done within the next five years, as the current administration desires, is yet to be seen, but getting human boots back on the lunar surface is something NASA firmly intends to do, and it's going to do so via a 'Lunar Gateway.'&nbsp;#Astronautics

Field

# Astronautics

Updated

25 May 2019

#3

We haven’t seen a rock like this in 50 years. In late April, the residents of Aguas Zarcas saw a giant fireball light up the sky as it hurtled towards the ground and broke up into hundreds of pieces, like this one above, in the atmosphere. Space science is always about what’s going on ‘out there’. Sometimes, astronomers must pay attention to what’s falling to Earth, too. That’s precisely what Arizona State University’s (ASU) Laurence Garvie is...#Astronautics

#9

A top NASA executive hired in April to guide strategy for returning astronauts to the moon by 2024 has resigned, the space agency said on Thursday, the culmination of internal strife and dwindling congressional support for the lunar initiative.#Astronautics

#11

Mars and Earth may have a lot of things in common, but the processes that sculpt their sand dunes are not among them. Exactly how Martian sand moves around crevasses and impact craters has been something of a mystery - but we might finally have a b#Astronautics

#60

Mating can be a real battle in the animal world, but peacock spiders leave their helmets behind—literally. This arachnid exoskeleton came from an adult male Maratus velutinus, who shed his skin one last time before mating.#Astronautics

#72

You may not realise it, because we always see the same side of it&nbsp;from Earth, but the Moon is pretty weird. The side we see is very different from the far side, which is always facing away from us, and the contrast between these two sides has#Astronautics

#87

The Solar System might be a soggier place than we previously thought - even in the glacially cold reaches of the Kuiper Belt. There, dwarf planet Pluto could be harbouring liquid oceans under a shell of nitrogen ice.#Astronautics

#96

NASA recognized an MIT student team design for a greenhouse on Mars as part of its Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-changing Idea Challenge. “BEAVER” (Biosphere Engineered Architecture for Viable Extraterrestrial Residence) could sustain four astronauts for two years. #Astronautics

#102

Of all the pieces of hardware that NASA has sent to Mars, we don't hear about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter nearly as much as we'd like. It's an incredible machine that has dramatically outlived its initial mission timeline and continues to relay important information about the Red Planet thanks to its suite of cameras and high-tech sensors.#Astronautics

#105

On December 11, 2017, US President Donald Trump signed a directive ordering NASA to prepare to return astronauts to the Moon "followed by human missions to Mars and other destinations." "The Moon is the proving ground for our eventual mission to Mars," NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said at a conference this week.#Astronautics